Houston Quilt Market Part I

I got back early this past week from the Houston International Quilt Market. I think it’s the 18^th one for me. Market is for store owners only, not generally to the public. I had a booth there to sell our new book by Noriko Endo called, Confetti Naturescapes : Quilting Impressionist Landscapes.

It was fun to see all my old friends and make new ones as I wandered through hundreds of booths. I mean hundreds. No exaggeration! Many of the largest booths are fabric vendors. My favorite was Free Spirit and the new Jane Sassaman line called Garden Divas! I can’t wait to get my hands on some of this yardage with the bold graphics and beautiful colors. Jane is a master at fabric design. I’ve recommended it before, but her blog is always a great place to go for ideas:

Lots of people from around the globe stopped by the booth to say hello to either Noriko or me. It was terrific to see our new distributor from Barcelona. Our distributors from New Zealand spent some time telling me about their beautiful country. I was ready to get on a plane and go, but I’ll wait for another day!

Author, Susan Brubaker Knapp was by to tell us about her new DVD coming out soon called Master Machine Stitching: Thread Stitching Beyond the Basics that will be available next month. It is a follow up to her first DVD on Machine Stitching. (Watch this blog! Susan and I are doing a trade. I’ll have a copy of her DVD to give away and she’ll have a copy of the Confetti Naturescapes to give away on her blog.) Susan, by the way, has a fantastic blog, where she’s already put up a couple posts about the Quilt Market. Go take a look!

A big trend from fashion was seen at Market….zippers! Like you’ve never seen before! Lecien from Japan had invisible ones with printed tape…prints of trucks and lace and floral. Across from me was a Chinese manufacturer that had zippers with rhinestone teeth, multi-color metallic teeth on one zipper and striped grosgrain tape that was beautiful! People were wearing open zippers around their necks as badge holders!